For applications as diverse as animation, electronic commerce (“e-commerce”), design and prototyping work, as well as other types of applications, computer graphics modeling is important. For example, within an e-commerce Internet web site, a user may be able to see a computer-rendered model wearing the clothes that he or she is potentially interested in buying. The use of computer modeling in such an application allows the user to ultimately make a more informed decision regarding his or her purchase, lessening the chance of a product being returned.
A type of clothing that consumers can commonly purchase in retail and online stores is knitwear. The real-world process for constructing knitwear clothes includes spinning raw fibers into yarn, which is knitted into fabric based on a stitch pattern, and optionally a color pattern. The knitted fabric is then sewn into the desired clothing, such as a shirt, sweater, or other type of clothing.
Within the prior art, however, there is no provision for computer modeling of knitwear. This is a disadvantage in applications where knitwear modeling is needed, such as in e-commerce. For this and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.